Luka Pinto’s spontaneous street skateboarding is a great thing to watch but there’s more to it than your eyes notice at first. He’s a skater and artist from Jersey, England a remote island where things regularly grow in isolation.
So he’s used to coming up with his own ideas on skating and art drawn from his own mind, environment and close knit local community.
It’s probably what makes his mindset and skating different to most.
Alongside filming and skating Luka has led the charge behind the Jersey scene by creating a series of local community events, skating for the local shop Consume and for the Jersey- based board brand Subterranean skateboards to this day.
He hasn’t always lived in Jersey though and has travelled around stacking clips along the way and filming tricks for a countless number of scene videos in the UK, France, Spain and around Europe.
We are stoked Luka is now a member of The No Comply Network so we had a chat about growing up in Jersey, how he got his first board, inspirations from his dad’s willow sculptures, filming his part in Getting By, skating for Science Skateboards, skating with Sam Taylor, meeting Jake Harris and Tom Knox, filming for Eleventh Hour with Dan Clarke, Arthur Derrien and Chris Jones, skating in Kingston with Jeremy Jones and Marcus Adams, making art and design, his youth work and community events in Jersey, Paint, Skate Chill, visiting the Vladimir Film Festival in Croatia, hanging with George Booth-Cole and George Toland to create photo and film for his zine Crew Report and his favourite skaters, video parts, spots and photos of all time.
Read it below to discover it for yourself.
How have you been dealing with everything Luka?
Yeah pretty good! I’ve been enjoying not having work but it’s just difficult. But I’ve been working again every day for the last 2 months?
What’s your job in Jersey man?
I work in youth clubs but because of the pandemic the youth clubs are not open right now. I also work at a jewellery workshop in the day.
What do you do there?
I am getting taught how to make jewellery at the moment.In the evening I do work at youth clubs and actually teach skating as well but that’s in my own time. Occasionally people will ask me they you want to do lessons and I’ll do it once a week with some kids.
Yeah, I miss the youth club a lot, we usually do whatever they want to do, artwork, cooking, football, whatever.
Teaching skating and youth work, what’s that like for you?
Teaching skating is good. I pretty much always enjoy it. Sometimes there are kids who find it hard to concentrate so you have to figure it out.
Sounds like it can be tough; any positive stories come to mind?
There are a couple kids that came to youth club that became skaters after I started.
I brought in magazines and stuff for us to collage and they got well into that and I bought in stickers for them and we do graffiti and shit like that.
Sick, you got them into skating and art. Where’d you grow up?
I grew up in Jersey yeah, and I was born in Jersey.
You’re a Jersey legend man. Your dad is an artist too right?
My dad’s name is Alcindo, he doesn’t paint or draw or anything. He basically looks after wild areas. So people will employ him and ask him what’s best to do with this bit of land, and he’ll tell them what’s best for nature. He makes sculptures out of willow, like domes and fences out of willows.
He recently made this insane toad, that’s like 14 foot high and to scale. He’s definitely an artist. But if you asked him what his thing is, he would say that he was a gardener, not an artist.
That toad is huge. It’s funny he doesn’t consider himself to be an artist. Some people just don’t see the art in skateboarding.
I get that vibe from my mom. I feel like when she watches skating she just thinks it’s the same trick over and over and over.
So, how did you get interested in skateboarding?
My dad, he inspired me with his mindset you know? The way that he thinks has rubbed off on me a lot. The first thing that got me into skating was I had this jumper with the Tasmanian devil on. Taz on it, riding on a skateboard. I think that was the first thing I can remember about skateboarding.
How did you get your first skateboard?
I think I was about three when my uncle asked me what do you want for Christmas and I said Skateboard! That was when I wanted a board for the first time.
You were skating since you were three!?
Yeah, I’ve got pictures of me on a skateboard since I was 4.
What can you remember from when you were three?
It was a toy shop board, it had this guy on it, like a big square random cartoon character with a blockhead and it said something like Cool Dude on it!
It had some seriously 1980s graphic style so I had that board. I used that board for a bit, then I got more toy shop boards, at ages 3, 4, 5, but then at age 6 I got some hand me down real skate stuff.
Where did you skate and what was your first proper board?
There used to be this mini ramp on the west coast of Jersey and I used to go there a lot. I went there when I was 6 and a guy was selling boards. It was there that I got my first real set up, a Tony Montgomery Girl board. It had the graphic with the chairs on it. That was my first proper board.
What did you skate when you started, just the ramp?
I used to skate the mini ramp loads. I’d go there once a week with my step sister, she’s a couple years older than me. I used to skate and push around and stuff but she’s the person who taught me how to Ollie, how to drop-in, how to rock and roll and everything.
How much older than you is she?
She is 5 years older than me.
So she learnt to skate before you, so you looked up to her skating?
Yeah, she taught me how to do all the fundamentals of skating. But also as well as going to the mini ramp, I used to walk with my dad around town and he’d take me to parks or around the town and because I was a kid with my dad, we never got kicked out so I could just cruise around.
You think having parental support helped your skating?
Yeah, definitely man. Getting support is dope. My mom would be scared that I would hurt myself but my dad would be like, just let him do it, it’s the only way he’s going to learn!
Yeah skating helps you come out of your shell. Did it help you to be more independent and travel around your area ?
Jersey’s small. It’s 9 x 5 miles square. It’s hard to not see most of it. You occasionally stumble through to new parts of it that you’ve never seen every now and then. Thing is, you can skate from one side of the island to the other in about 2 and half hours. It does sound tiny but when you get here, it is practically quite big. But you can drive from one side to the other in about half an hour.
Skating definitely made us see more of the island though when we were younger. We’d get the bus to random places, skate green lanes; go to different ends of the island. We used to skate a lot of abandoned buildings. There was an abandoned holiday village in this place called Claremont?
OK, how was that?
We’d go there. We used to like to clear bits out and skate it. There was another one where it had been completely smashed up for years and we built a full on skatepark in there. There was another one which was actually a brewery in town. When I was about 15, I was at school but I skived the day off and we cleared it all out and we’d build ramps and paint.
Rad
The crazy thing about that was that the electricity still worked in there. We’d turn the lights on and go there at night. There were also these vents you could turn on to air out the place if someone had been graffing and it smelled of the fumes. It was crazy man. Police actually came and they couldn’t kick us out one day and they ended up leaving because they didn’t know how to get in! We had all the entrances.
What was it like skating in Jersey as a kid?
We would get a lot of hassle when we were younger. We could get kicked out of spots and the public didn’t understand us as much as they do now. I feel that Jersey is still a bit behind the times, they don’t understand skateboarding much. A lot of the public think skaters are a nuisance. People are starting to get it though. When I was going to school being a skater, people thought you were a nerd but it’s totally different now.
Skating is huge but it’s still illegal in so many places, it’s crazy
It’s getting better. There’s still a lot of people who hate it and don’t understand it. But occasionally you get an older person who says what you’re doing is brilliant, don’t stop. It’s great when you get an older person who connects with it and is positive about skateboarding.
Yeah, for sure, are you still skating with people you were skating when you were a kid?
I started skating with Glen Fox, Ryan Cunningham and Dillon Powell and all those guys when Primo came about.
What was Primo?
So we have a shop called Consume in Jersey but years ago when I was around 10 they opened their first skate shop. That was called Primo and when they opened the shop, we all started skating together and so it was the shop where we started hanging out.
Who started it?
A guy called Karl Payne. He runs Subterranean skateboards and Pillo Wheels. Subterranean has been going for a long time.
Yeah, how long has that been going on?
I was about 10/11 when they started it. The cool thing about Jersey is that it’s so small you can’t really get away from your crew. Your crew is it and that’s it! We were the only ones here. Now there are loads of kids but when we were younger, it was just us, we were on the same boat and you couldn’t change it. Being on the island just keeps your community really tight.
Sick, so who was your first sponsor?
Subterranean Skateboards. The local Jersey board brand.
Were you trying to get sponsored?
I think if I lived in England maybe some recognition would have come quicker. I was not looking for sponsorship. I was just trying to impress myself, I wasn’t’ trying to impress anyone else. But when Karl told me he wanted to give me boards, I remember one of the days I went out with one of the guys from the shop and I was skating quite well. I went back to the shop and I saw this Girl board and said I wanted that.
Then Karl and this guy Phil came out with the Girl board and another board and you said you can have this board about the Girl board or you can have a Subterranean board for free.I was down!
How old were you?
I was 12. A couple years later they put my friend Damon on as well and a little after that, they put on Ryan and Glen as well. Then Dillon and later Eddie Roberts. I think we would have all come together eventually but being young and having that shop to go to, and being able to watch videos in there and chat was the thing that got us to know each other more.
What was the first skate video that you ever watched?
The first video I ever watched. You know Puzzle? It was Puzzle issue number 3.
Not number 1?
No, issue number 3!
Sick
My dad and I went to a car boot sale. It had loads of old stock from an old surf skate shop and he said if you want a video you can get one. I picked one up and it was Puzzle number 7 but inside it was the tape from issue number 3!?
What do you remember from watching that Puzzle video?
The first section was in Paris, which had footage of them skating that red brick bank spot. It’s such sick footage. I think they are in Montmartre are of the city and the banks were just the steepest ones.
The Ali Boulala Kickflip Nosepick ones?
Yeah. There was a Lyon section in there as well. I remember going to Lyon when I was filming for Eleventh Hour and I was seeing spots and thinking fucking Hell! I remember seeing thee spots somewhere. But I couldn’t remember where and after I realised they were in the first video I ever saw.
Yeah Puzzle was like Europe’s version of 411. Jersey is in-between England, France and Spain. Where was the first place that you skated overseas?
I think it was Spain. My sister moved to Spain, when she was 17. She had had enough of Jersey and went to Malaga. My mom and I went over, when I was about 10 and I remember skating actual skateparks for the first time and freaking out. I pretty much passed out because of the boiling heat and the excitement. Then I grinded this rail and I ollied on it and I hung up on it and flew forward and passed out and all the skaters around the park were all circled around asking me if I’m ok!?
Must have been scary at the time? So is this your sister who taught you how to skate?
This was my actual sister not my step sister. My sister was a DJ and she was kind of involved in skating a little bit because her boyfriend was a DJ who knew a lot of skaters.
My sister actually DJ’d for an Osiris Demo. They gave her a T-shirt with some photos from Subject to Change on it and with Chris Dobstaff’s signature. I used to wear it all the time but I lost it now.
No way
Yeah I think it’s the craziest thing that my sister DJ’d for an Osiris Demo. I don’t think she still realises how rad that was DJi’ng for the old school Osiris team
When was the first time that you skated in France?
I had been to France before when I was younger with my dad. We went in the van and drove to Corsica through France. We just drove and slept in the van. Visiting spots on the street on the way. My dad would go for a walk and I’d go skate with him. Yeah, he showed me how to wander the streets.
How did your Getting By section go down…by the way, the music selection on that part is amazing
Yeah, that’s Roy Ayers song ‘Coffy is the Color’
Yeah, it’s a banging section and song. How did you decide to move to London and film it?
As a kid, I was always doodling and stuff, When I got a bit older, I wasn’t concentrating in that school that much, I wasn’t a really naught y kid but I wasn’t 100 percent focused but when I as in art. I was doing really well and it goes hand in hand with skating.
So after I did my GCSE’s I did a foundation course in art and design. I had some well good teachers, I did loads of good stuff that I enjoyed and after that I was supposed to get into university but I didn’t get on to the art course that I wanted to.
Where was that?
Kingston in London
Okay what did you do then?
They said I could get on to the foundation course. I was like fuck it! It’s a chance to get out of Jersey and go over to England and see what happens.
What was that first year like?
In my first year of college there in Kingston, I wasn’t interested as I had just done two years of foundation. I knew what I liked and I felt it was a bit repetitive. So I ended up just going skating all the time with Ross Lidgey? Do you know him?
Yeah, he made the video that you, Greg and Dan Tomlinson have parts in?
Yeah, he’s the filmer of the Getting By video, Ross Lidgey. So me and the Kingston crew like Jeremy Jones, who I met straightaway, Marcus Adams, Alex Lally and Doug Parmiter, I was skating with them, all the time.
Was that at the old Kingston park? That park was gnarly
Yeah, it was the old park. I thought it was cool it had some characters?
What was your favourite trick at the old Kingston park?
Doug used to go over the metal quarterpipe over the back to bar to flat, he did that a few times. That was gnarly.
Elliot Wright, he did a Nollie cab front flip from quarter to quarter over these small quarter hips. Elliot had loads of mad tricks there.
Also just watching Jeremy Jones skating the spine was crazy.
Everyone had their own style and skated so good. Also the min ramps as well, the ramps were fibreglass but everyone would shred it so hard.
So living in London whilst studying, did you end up putting your course on the back burner to skate more?
What happened was, I basically came to Kingston and I was doing that course but I actually made more of a connection with the skateboarders than the college. Literally I came over in September and I came back for Christmas and I had the DVD already.
So you filmed it in like three months?
Yeah. Everyone else had filmed their parts so, me and Jeremy Jones went to the city and met Ross, the filmer and Greg Conroy and a couple other people who were filming parts, but basically had filmed all of their parts. So I came around and we went out every day and went back to different spots. So yeah by Christmas, I came home and was like no way I’ve got a new part.
How long did you film? That’s a quick turn around?
I filmed for that part for six weeks man!
What tricks come to mind from that section?
I liked the lines. I did a Switch Tailslide and then I did a Switch Backside Tailslide 270 Shuvit. And then as a single afterwards I did a Backside Tailslide Kickflip out but when I arrived those ledges were so good to skate.
What spot is that?
It’s in the city. It’s by the ledges where I do the Ollie up Backside 360 ollie off in that part. I was so stoked man, the ledges were so perfect.
It was only about ten minutes away from Southbank. Another cool thing about that part was that I was really keen on skating Southbank but Ross Lidgey was never keen to skater there. He knew it was a like a vortex.
But then after we filmed and got some clip, we would just go to different spots that he knew from videos and so he’d take me around. So after we finished that part, then I started to go to Southbank more.
Another funny thing about that time filming, I remember I snapped 8 pairs of Venture trucks in one year. It was nuts.
8 pairs of Ventures?
Yeah. I used to skate them a lot when I was a kid. I just remember skating those ledges and I remember being like finally I can skate some nice ledges you know?
Yeah for sure .What is it about No Complys that stokes you out?
I don’t know! No Comply is not even my trick I can barely do regular ones but the switch ones comes easier for me then to do a Switch 180. It’s not like I love them but I can do the Switch 360 ones and the switch revert ones and they feel great.
It’s just felt smooth, it felt natural, and it wasn’t something I thought about that.
Your Half Cab Noseslide Bigspin out on that curve ledge in Canary Wharf was sick, how did that go down?
I think we just went there and Ross knew all the spots in Canary Wharf. He took me there a handful of times to there and to that spot and we skated the underground bit too. There’s a Noseblunt I do in there in the intro to the video.
So security were always kicking us out and all that but on that occasion, we got time to skate and we filmed that trick as the same session as the line and the half cab crook line in the inside ledge downstairs in the mall in Canary Wharf.
I always loved Half Cab Noseslides its one of my favourites but because of the whip around the corner it kind of shook me out with the Bigspin. I think I’d done it once on a ledge in the skatepark. I don’t remember much from that session. I just remember trying it and just doing it man.
Sick, You got sponsored by Science at the time, how’d that go down?
It wasn’t that long man. It was about I don’t know under year. Maybe six months to a year I ended up skating for Subterranean again after.
How did you end up getting sponsored by them?
I thought because I’m in London and Sam Taylor saw my part in Getting By, he mentioned Chris Morgan, who runs Science that he should hook me up. I met up with Chris and ended up getting along with him and I just though fuck it yeah let’s do it!
But then I realised it wasn’t working because he was on the east side of London and I was in the south west part of London so It was far to get there. He had his car but I just wanted to skate in the city with Jeremy and friends and he’d be like I’m sorry there’s only one space in the car.
Yeah, he’s still doing his thing, he’s had loads of great riders, he’s got Joe Sivell, who’s rode for him for the longest time. They got such a good time and they got Josh Cox on the team now too I think.
Yeah, he’s San Francisco based now too
I think Lucien Clarke used to skate for Science. Steph Kou skated for them. That’s funny because we actually shared a part in the Science video and I never even met him. Now I watch him and I’m like he’s insane and I was like I shared a part with this guy.
Yeah, that Switch Flip Backside Noseblunt he did for the recent Helas video was nuts man, he’s mad!
What inspired you to pick up a camera?
My friend Dylan Powell, he was making edits and I used to watch them when I was about 15 and he was doing a lot of filming. I remember thinking it’s too late to get a video camera! Everybody else has been filming since we were like 12, 13, I can’t start now, it’s too late.
How did you decide to get a camera?
But it was him who convinced me to get a camera. So I was like yeah fuck it, so I bought a camera of EBay for $50 and we taped a lens on that and just used that. It was a Hi-8 video camera and I filmed with that for about a year and a half.
What was the first thing you filmed on it?
We made a scene video in Jersey called The Only Reason.
That was when I started filming pretty much and then when I was around 17/18 years old I got this little Kodak handheld camera. I used it to film with that all the time, I got addicted to having it in my pocket and recording things all the time.
Since I got that, it got me addicted to filming and after that I was always filming I always wanted to have a camera on me. So it’s been since I was quite young, having something on me to document things.
This was pre-smartphone era
Yeah everyone’s doing it now but were doing it before we had a decent camera on our phones.
How did your Eleventh Hour section go down?
It was through Sam Taylor again. It was well random. I’d been skating with Sam Taylor a little bit. He was like my friend Jake Harris is going to film an advert for some headphones at Stockwell and if you skate for it you can get paid and you can get some product. I was like sound I’ll come around and then when I met Jake he told me that he and Knox had watched my part in Getting By and that they liked it.
Cool
So yeah, they hit me up after that and we got along after we went to Stockwell that time and then we agreed to go skate the street sometime.
Then Jake started hitting me up and started going out to skate the streets a lot more. He told me he was going on filming missions and so after we got some decent single clips and lines Jake mentioned that he and a few people in the crew were going to go to Lyon.
I was like fuck my Auntie lives in Lyon, so I was like I want come, so I ended up coming along too.
Where did you stay in Lyon?
We stayed with Quentin Laurent and when we came back, we filmed some more, it was sick. It’s kind of a shame that we lost contact, it’s a shame we were hanging out and skating together a bit but I came back to Jersey and we lost touch. I still talk to Dan Clarke and Chris Jones.
I’ve seen Chris Jones over the year. Haven’t seen Tom Knox much. I’ve spoken to Jake on Instagram and stuff and Arthur Derrien from Free too. Whenever I come to London I’ll see him., I speak to Arthur a lot.
But yeah I’ve moved away for 8 years now. I want to come back and see everyone sometime soon.
Is there a trick in Eleventh Hour you’re particularly proud of?
From that part would be the opening line. I do Half Cab Crook on that wooden ledge, I was trying to revert out of the Half Cab Crook but I landed the Half Cab Crook in perfect Nollie position straightaway and so I just banged a Nollie flip and it felt so good and then almost knocked into the bench and then I like maneuvered around it.
l planned already to ollie over the rail and I said I was going to do the Wallride and Jacob was like do the Kickflip up the curb and everything went well and came together nicely.
Then I landed the Wallride and I did that Powerslide Shuvit. And the Powerslide Shuvit, that was the first time, I’d done it, I was hyped and for some reason it came.
I didn’t think about what I was doing at the time and I just did it. I’ve seen people do it since but It just came naturally to me. I was like fucking yeah and I think I did a couple more tricks afterward. I was well hyped on that line
What about the other line that started off with the Powerslide where you grab that pole, what inspired you to do that?
I wanted to ollie over this little gap but to make the corner smoothly, it worked well to do it like that. It wasn’t planned, I just grabbed on to it and I thought yeah, that works. I tried it a few times and just kept doing it.
Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of other people do other tricks like it since
I couldn’t believe that was my last line I remember thinking fucking hell!
But that line is banging, all the tricks are really difficult, the road is super fucked up, and the SW 360 No Comply ender is twisted. How did that one go down? Was it planned?
The start bit was a bit planned but everything after that wasn’t planned. I remember when we’re filming that line a guy came out and screamed at us. When I hit the bank when we go into that underground bit, we went into there once or twice and the guy came out and shouted at us. You can’t see it on the footage but on the line that I actually landed everything, he runs up and tries to get us and he’s screaming his head off as we land it and I turned around and I was just like fuck you!
Any other memorable tricks from Eleventh Hour?
I always loved Daniel Clarke’s style man, it’s just so good man. The Nollie flip on St Paul’s ledge, down the stairs that he does, that was so good.
Yeah that was dope
He had such a sick style and then on the opposite side of the spectrum style wise was Arthur Derrien.
Arthur because he’s such a small guy and he is so precise. He could do such tech ledge tricks.
For sure, favourite trick by Arthur in Eleventh Hour?
Arthur does a 5-180 and a Fakie Pop Shuvit Crooks over the whole wooden benches that one stands out for me.
Yeah Arthur is rad
It was good to skate with Kevin Lowry in real life too. Kevin is such a beast. Everything he does is so solid man. It’s just like massive Ollies, big long backside 5-0’s, Half Cabs, Caballerials, back 360’s everything he does is just so solid.
What motivated you to get active in skating in the Jersey Scene?
There were a couple of kids, who in 2013, three kids died. Three of the skateboarders, they were like 15/16/ So the younger generation, they lost three friends in one year and yeah that was quite deep.
What year was that?
This was in 2013, this was 7 years ago. Two of them committed suicide and then another one of their friends he just took too many pills and drank and overdosed. So it was a rough year for that generation
Sounds like it for sure
So after that I thought I wanted to do an event, that brought together the younger generation and the younger generation and it was called Paint, Skate, Chill.
Sick, good name
Paint, skate chill, come down and do graffiti and get everyone skating together Even if you don’t do either, just come and chill. We’d have BBQ’s everybody was down there listening to tunes, we did it four years in a row, last year was the last time that it didn’t happen but hopefully we can do it again this year. But you never know with this coronavirus stuff. It’s so crazy, how much life has changed.
How did you end up going to the Vladimir Film Festival?
Nikola Racan, who does Vladimir film festival in Croatia. That’s a big inspiring thing for me. They found out about us through the Pillo Wheels video and invited us to Croatia to show the video. We went over and expected it to be a film festival. But it’s more than that.
The amount of heart they put into that event is unreal It’s all independent, there are no people there getting paid to make videos. Everyone there is purely there doing, art, or photography or film because they just love it. It’s the sickest event I’ve ever been. You leave there thriving with inspiration
You know Gosha Konyshev, the snow skating Russian dude?
Yeah, he’s gnarly
Well when Gosha went to Vladimir he saw the section Jim Craven did with Tom Day skating in the countryside with all of those natural drainage spots. Skating in the countryside, In the really rural areas, next to big reservoirs where there were big slabs of concrete in non-urban areas.
Gosha Konyshev saw that and said if they can do that I can something. So that’s what inspired him to go and film his own section skating in the city covered in spots in the snow.
Nikola who does the festival, is such a good MC, he’s always bringing the energy, so good at introducing people, he’s confident with the microphone. In person, he’s quiet and chilled but he’s totally different on the mic.
Sick
I can’t wait to go back there. Yeah the next Crew report will be filled with those. I filmed last year and I took a bunch of photos and George Booth-Cole took a bunch of photos there too. Me Dylan, Layla and George Toland, We all got loads of photos so I’m going to put them together for the next Crew Report zine, focusing around Vladimir.
I was watching some Quim Cardona footage recently, I always felt you two skated similar. Were you inspired by him?
I love the way Quim Cardona skates to be honest. When I did that section for Eleventh Hour, people kept saying to me you skate like Quim Cardona, a lot! I never really watched that much of his footage, I’d seen him skate in Kayo’s Its Official video but that was it.
I always liked him I’m not saying that I am not a fan of Quim’s skating, but he’s not my favourite skater but people kept saying that afterwards. I was like ah yeah watching his older stuff and realising there were some similarities.
Yeah it was a pure coincidence
Yeah it wasn’t a conscious thing. I wasn’t funny about it but when people said it at the same time but I was like oh no they don’t think I have an original style!
People are just creatures of habits and look for points of comparison. It’s funny you never looked at his skating in that way.
If someone was to compare my skating to Quim Cardona’s skating. I’m very happy of it, because I am a big fan of his skating but it was never a conscious thing. People just draw their own conclusions.
What other original things do you like to make? I know you made those lighter cases, what other stuff have you made?
I like drawing on things. I prefer drawing on objects to paper. I find when I draw on something it comes out better. When I was at college I was painting on boards, I’d sand them out and just draw on them there and they’d come out loose and way better than on paper. When I paint on something like that I never wanted to fuck it up so it would make my painting better.
Then one day, I was like I should paint lighters, sand them down and make art on them. The idea behind it is that if you’ve got a special lighter, with a great design, you care more about it, so you’re more likely to reuse it rather than to throw it away or lose it every week.
Yeah, its something you really value
I still make lighters occasionally. At one point I was bang on it, I was selling them and I was getting asked to make so many.
But after I did so many and then after I made about a 100 I got a bit of sick of it because it took so much concentration. When you’re doing it for fun it’s good but when you feel like you’re doing it because you have to, it’s not so fun!
Yeah, for sure
I just want to carry on making art for myself, paint a shoe, a board, or a lighter or a present for someone. What I feel like at the moment is working on my magazine project I’m working on
What’s the name of your magazine?
It’s called Crew Report.
So I did the first crew report which was a full video, with my mates here in Jersey, they have full parts in the video and I made a magazine to go with it.
Everyone in the magazine is in the video or at least plays a part in it somehow.
The magazine is basically me talking about my mates and it’s all mainly with my photos too. It’s all 35mm photos, there’s a few other guest photos in there but I’ve shot roughly 95 percent of it all myself on film.
So the focus of the magazine is Jersey?
Not just Jersey, it’s about people. I’m not trying to promote stuff; I’m not trying to have ads in the magazine. I’m planning on doing one on my dad’s art, local artists. I want to do other crew reports. That’s my plan. I want to do an edit and a zine from every place I visit for a while, every time that I can and the zine will be about all those people that I meet and feature in the edits.
Yeah for sure. Do you have a favourite skate photo?
My favourite skate photo is one from the 90s. Chuck Dinkins came to Jersey. He did a layback on this bank. It’s probably the only famous skate photo shot in Jersey. That photo is banging. Just a layback on the bank. There’s so much style, his hands, his stance, everything looks great.
I find that question so hard because there’s always so many out there.
What’s your favourite skate video?
I love Toy Machine’s Welcome to Hell. That’s a beast video. That was one I used to watch the most as a little kid.
Welcome to Hell was Sick. What’s your favourite trick in Satva’s section?
The line where he does the invisible Switch Frontside Flip. Yeah Nollie Smith, Shifty of the ledge, you can’t see the flip, it looks like it doesn’t leave his feet. Yeah he had some good lines.
Do you have a favourite piece of art ever?
The first thing that pops to mind is my dad’s willow structure of the toad, its insane!
Favourite skate spot in London?
I was always liked the Ritzy cinema in Brixton. It’s just a good vibe there.
Favourite spot in Jersey?
I don’t even know. We always skate Millennium Park which is this really big square with some stairs. My favourite spot in Jersey is Glass Lift; it’s an old school one. It’s a square bit of land and you could just skate around it.
Everyone used to skate there, every single day I used to live across the road and we build a few grindboxes there and I actually copied the Southbank ledges, so they were the exact same length and size.
Which ledges at SB?
When I was 15, I hurt my leg, I was like I want to skate ledges so I remade the SB cheeseblock ledge there.
Who’s your favourite artist?
I like Larry Clark. Films and photos around Youth Culture and general documenting of real life and not trying to make it sugar coated, trying to keep it as raw as possible. Keep it real.
Kids was raw
Jonah Hill’s Mid 90s film was good but it was missing something. Kids was way more rough innit!
Do you have a favourite memory from your skate career?
It’s constantly been good. I’ve never not been immersed in it. There’s never been a point where I’ve stopped loving it. I’ve had friends who left and come back but I never stopped geeking out on skateboarding and loving it.
A lot of the people I look up to now, are the OG’s like Chico Brenes and how he is still pushing himself and putting lovely lines together and really enjoying it. Really like people who are getting older and staying humble. Look at the Gonz, he’s got a family but he’s still skating and doing his thing.
That’s the biggest thing for me photography, art music it’ all inspires me, passing it on to younger ones, having lessons and sessions with younger kids and seeing the fire in their eyes I just love that.
Do you have a favourite piece of art by Jeremy Jones?
There was this one time when, there was this rounded chair at Southbank and Jeremy picked it up and started drawing on it and tagging on it. Drawing a bunch faces on it. Found a spray can started spraying it, stomped the spray can, loads of paint spit out onto the thing and he carried on. Then he ollied it, then skidded into it, knocked it over and crook bonked the leg.
I was thinking that’s just one piece of art in that whole session, just the way he’s completely attacked that bench in so many different ways. He was just like, here’s this metal bench and I’m going to hit it from every which way, with a pen, with a skateboard, that was just one piece of art, I liked.
I don’t wish I’d filmed it because it was good to lie back and see it go down but if somebody had got a camera out and filmed that. The whole process was just art coming out of him, that’s got to be my favourite piece by Jeremy.
Do you have a favourite trick by Glen that you’ve filmed?
All of the stuff from the Pillo Wheels video Connexiones was so good. That was around the time, he was going off and nobody else in the world knew about him, we were all just so excited like fucking hell; Glen is going mental, bloody hell!
Glen Fox went faster than people that you would see in the magazines, even in footage and his style was original. Great original lines. Just even the way that he bombs hill with so much power and such little fear. He was such a powerhouse who rips everything so quick.
Even when he got onto Magenta, people were thinking even when his part dropped, people on the internet were like oh he’s the guy who does the quick foot thing but it’s not just that. Glen skates stairs, rails, he can bomb hills and he can do so many different types of Powerslides. Kickflip Backside Powerslides. Tricks into Powerslides to trick out. He can do mad combinations of this trick and like Half Cab flip land in Nollie and then do a Nollie Backside Flip.
He was one of the first people that I ever saw to do two tricks on a bank.
Was Glen’s Kickflip Kickflip at SB just made up on the spot?
Yeah it was just on the spot. I think it was the first one. He did a Kickflip, a Half Cab and a Tre Flip and a little line after that. Then he was wondering, if he could do two Kickflips in a row on the same bank and so he just went back and forth and just did it.
I would say that would be my favourite trick by Glen but it must be the most iconic trick that I’ve filmed of him to this day.
Favourite piece of art by Glen Fox?
Yeah I like Glen’s murals. He’s just done one in Jersey. It’s done a big piece on a big white wall with some intricate lines. It’s almost as if his paintings recently look like hieroglyphics. He’s like turning his art into like a visual language that represents everything around us that skaters see.
Yeah, it seems like he’s put lots of attention to detail. What’s your favourite music to listen to right now?
Nina Simone is one of my favourites. Her music always gives me a certain kind of feeling. Listening to Nina Simone is great. Yeah recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Sade. Roots Manuva has always been a favourite.
Is there anybody that you want to give a shoutouts to?
Shoutout to all the Jersey crew, Glen, Ryan, Dylan. Everyone. Karl Payne always supported us over the years. Shoutout to Layla, holding it down for the ladies out in Jersey, she’s pushing it on the streets for all of the ladies. Shoutouts to everyone I’ve met over the years. Mercia Crew, Bristol crew, London Crew, everyone I have met over the years.
Any last words for people reading this over lockdown?
Yeah, I think it’s a good time to be able to do whatever you want to do. Enjoy life.
You get so caught up in work and a lot of people are workaholics so they are constantly at work or in the gym or doing stuff. Then they drink all weekend and it becomes a rhythm especially in Jersey, where there’s so little to do, they think they’ve earned the right to get fucked up and it’s kind of true but it just becomes a work, drink, work, drink routine.
It’s nice to put a pause on that and do stuff in life your actually meant to do, reading, cooking, enjoying nature and spending time with your family ad with other people who are nearby. It’s a chance to learn something new.
